By Jon Donnis
Girls in the UK are losing out on sport at a scale that's almost hard to get your head around. The numbers are blunt: 280 million hours of sport missed every year by girls aged 11 to 18. Put another way, that's the equivalent of 52 football matches lost every year for each girl compared to the time boys get to play. It's not for lack of interest either. Plenty of girls want to take part, but the doors often aren't open.
A new report by Public First, commissioned by Sky, shows just how wide the gap has become. One in three girls say boys at their schools get access to more teams, better pitches and the prime slots on the timetable. Girls, meanwhile, are often left with leftover equipment, inconvenient training times, and the message that sport is a boys' world. By the age of 11 many are already drifting away, convinced it isn't for them. And when they do stick it out, the environment can be hostile. A third of girls aged 11–18 report sexist comments when playing sport, a figure that jumps to 42% among older teens.
What gets lost in all of this is more than just missed matches. Sport builds futures. The report shows women who played extracurricular sport as children are 50% more likely to reach senior professional roles. It's a predictor as powerful as a university degree. It also gives people tools that stretch far beyond the pitch: resilience, confidence, the ability to handle pressure and bounce back after setbacks. In fact, women who play sport are 30% more likely to recover quickly after hard times and 20% more willing to try new things.
Sky's response isn't just about pointing to a problem. The broadcaster is calling for targeted tax relief on the production of women's sport. The logic is simple: visibility matters. Over half of girls say watching professional athletes inspires them to play, and nearly two thirds of all young people agree that seeing diverse athletes helps to show that sport is for everyone. Right now, women's sport still doesn't get the same quality or quantity of coverage. Sky argues that government investment here could spark growth in the sector, create jobs, and show the next generation that the game is open to them too.
Alongside policy changes, Sky is taking matters into its own hands. In partnership with the charity Goals 4 Girls and Lioness Alessia Russo, they are launching The Alessia Cup, a new football tournament designed to give teenage girls from underserved backgrounds a chance to step onto the pitch. Russo herself described it as an opportunity to build confidence, resilience and leadership skills that will last well beyond the game. It's about creating spaces where girls can see themselves, not as exceptions, but as rightful participants in sport.
The voices backing the report show how broad the support is. Judy Murray, Helen Glover, Nasser Hussain and Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson all contributed, each underscoring the cost of leaving girls on the sidelines. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy echoed the urgency, pointing to £400 million of government investment in facilities, new commitments to equal PE access in schools, and the creation of a Women's Sport Taskforce to tackle barriers at every level.
The report even puts a number on the benefits of change. Empowering just one inactive 18-year-old girl to play sport creates a lifetime economic benefit of £30,000. Multiply that across the population, and the gains are enormous. Closing the gap by 2035 could unlock £6.5 billion in economic and health benefits, while also saving the NHS £73 million a year.
Dana Strong, Sky's Group CEO, summed it up best: "By age 11, nearly one in three girls stop believing sport is for them – proven not to be just a personal loss, but a national one." Her point cuts through. This isn't simply about fairness, it's about wasted potential, lost productivity, and missed health outcomes.
The message is clear. If barriers are broken down and investment is made, the benefits ripple far wider than the sports field. And if girls are given the same opportunities as boys, the country as a whole stands to win.
